About the Town

Union Bridge is located in the heart of the Piedmont Plateau. The gently rolling terrain offers outstanding rural scenes at every turn in the road.

Settled as a farming community before the Revolutionary War, Union Bridge was chartered by the Maryland General Assembly on May 2, 1872. Union Bridge was founded by the Farquhars of Pennsylvania. Many of the shade trees to be found in the town today are descendants of the two sugar maples brought from Brownsville, Pennsylvania by Mrs. Elizabeth Farquhar Wright.

While Union Bridge has grown slowly over the years, it has a proud heritage. In 1811, Jacob R. Thomas designed and assembled the world’s first reaping machine in Union Bridge. Noted sculptor, William Rinehart was born here. His works are to be found across the world including Washington, D.C. and Rome, Italy. The Western Maryland Railroad shops and offices were located here. Many innovations were spawned including the invention of the knuckle railroad coupler. In other notable areas, Union Bridge was the first small town to have electric lights, and President Hoover attended the A Friends Meeting with his family.

The town’s leading industry is the Lehigh Portland Cement Company which has employed a large portion of the towns people for decades.